Rescue ship arrives in Sicily with 245 migrants, 13 corpses

Rome, July 28 (IANS/AKI) A ship docked in the Sicilian port of Trapani in Italy with 245 migrants on board who were saved earlier this week in the Mediterranean, as well as the bodies of 13 people who perished on the crossing, officials said on Friday.

Rescuers on Tuesday recovered the corpses of 13 migrants including pregnant women from a flimsy inflatable dinghy drifting 15 nautical miles off the Libyan coast.

Shocking pictures of the tragedy emerged showing survivors from sub-Saharan Africa sitting on the sides of the raft around a pile of bodies, many of which were naked.

A Spanish charity rescue vessel that reached the scene found 167 migrants alive.

Nearly 3,000 migrants have died trying to reach Europe across the Mediterranean so far this year, according to the UN migration agency the International Organization for Migration.

A total 113,433 people entered Europe by sea this year through 26 July as the Mediterranean migrant crisis continues, with 94,445 of these people landing in Italy, according to IOM.